Business & Ice Cream Bars

“An excellent product manager is keeping in mind the long term vision while driving short term results, has the customer intuition to get there, and has the authority/integrity to lead the team along the way – very much a mini CEO when it’s done right.”

I enjoyed reading this short note "Lies that Loser Tell", from Ben Horowitz (@bhorowitz). It reminds me of experiences I had as a member of an executive team who was beginning to lose the major battles.

As a member of a team I found it frustrating to have a leader overreact on the smallest positive sign and even worse...not react at all on the negative. Nothing shakes the confidence you have in a leader or the strength of the company when your leader begins to tell lies either with their actions or their mouth. The people that matter the most and who are the ones who can most likely help need honesty - words and actions.

Here's the quick... What is Startup America? Last year Obama announced the creation of a large fund that will be used to fund early-stage, high growth startups outside of the usual tech hotspots - Cali, Mass, NY. The idea is to match investments made by private investment firms 1 to 1 and first round it may be 2 to 1.

I don't like it. Well, let me start over. I like the idea and the fact something was done in an attempt to spark funding for small biz. This just does not seem like a strong solution. In this article from @entmagazine you can skip to the last couple paragraphs to see why...it echoes my thoughts exactly.